Centre following Vajpayee's 'path of humanity' in J&K: Jaitley

Srinagar: Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was following the path of "humanity" shown by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Jammu and Kashmir, citing example of Budgam firing incident in which nine soldiers were indicted by the Army.

"Since the Modi government came to power, it has been our policy that if injustice has been done, the matter will be investigated and (if found true), it will be set right," the Union Finance Minister said during an interaction with civil society organised by BJP here.

Jaitley said while some people, including the opponents of BJP, were raking up Vajpayee's statement that issues of Jammu and Kashmir will be resolved within the ambit of 'insaniyat' (humanity), the present government at Centre was following it.

"In early months, I was also the Defence Minister. The (Chattergam) incident which resulted in the death of two youth and injuries to two others(happened). As soon as we came to know, I got a message from Prime Minister Modi asking me to investigate the incident and find the truth.

"I investigated the incident from both sides. Within two hours, I sent out a message in twitter as the Defence Minister, condemning the incident and apologising for it. This has happened perhaps for the first time in the history of India," he said.

Two youth were killed while two others were injured in firing by army in Chattergam area of Budgam district on November 3. The inquiry ordered by the army was completed within three weeks.